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Event seating takes to the Glasgow 2014 stage

Event seating is often the unsung hero of sporting ceremonies, usually placed into position well before any spectators arrive, and either hurriedly packed away while people's attention is elsewhere, or left in place until the audience have all gone home.

But the organisers of the opening ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games had something else in mind - a plan that allowed the arena to be kept clear for as much of the artistic and musical performance as possible, while giving the thousands of participating athletes a comfortable seat when they processed into the stadium.

The solution was to set out event seating at the same time as the athletes' procession entered the arena, so that the first real race of the Games was between the athletes and the ceremony's officials as they rushed to create the required blocks of seating.

It was all part of the ceremony's nod towards the sporting event's nickname - The Friendly Games - and the old Scottish tradition of bringing a chair with you to a party if the host does not have enough seats of their own.

And as an extra touch, alongside hundreds of identical chairs that were quickly set out in rows for the athletes to sit on, there were 450 unique designs, to further support the impression that they had been brought from people's homes.

Following the ceremony, several of these were given a commemorative holographic plaque and put up for auction as Games memorabilia, along with other items such as props from the opening ceremony, and used equipment from the sporting events themselves.

It's testament to the importance of the seating at the event - and the convenience of using proper event seating that can quickly be put into position to create blocks of chairs in neat rows, for any similar purpose.

While in this instance the chairs were somewhere for the athletes to rest after the procession, as well as to put them on show for the audience and television viewers to see, often event seating of this type is intended for the use of the audience themselves.

In either case, when time is short, the correct choice of audience seating can make sure that all the chairs are in the correct position well ahead of the deadline.